Magic lantern slide circa 1900.Victorian/Edwardian.Social History.The eiffel Tower photographed in 1889. The Eiffel Tower (/?a?f?l/ EYE-f?l; French: tour Eiffel [tu???f?l] (About this sound listen)) is a wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Constructed from 1887-89 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.[3] The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015